NEW DELHI , India -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A stampede at a hilltop temple in western India killed more than 147 people and wounded 55 others who had gathered to celebrate the start of a religious holiday on Tuesday , police said .

Victims of the stampede near an Indian Hindu temple are carried away from the scene .

More than 25,000 devotees were trying to reach the 15th-century temple through a steep and narrow pathway when the stampede occurred about dawn Tuesday , officials said .

The Chamunda Devi temple is inside a fort atop a hill in Jodhpur , the second-largest city and a popular tourist destination in the Indian state of Rajasthan .

Authorities do not know what prompted the rush , but state Police Chief K.S. Bains rejected as `` baseless '' reports that it was triggered by rumors of a bomb .

`` But one thing is clear : that a cascading effect did take place as it was a slope where it happened , '' he said . Watch as stampede mars religious holiday ''

India has been on edge in recent days after a string of deadly bombings across the country .

The crowd had gathered to celebrate the start of Navaratri , or nine nights . For nine nights and 10 days , Hindus worship the various forms of a Hindu goddess .

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said police had planned for the event and deployed `` enough '' officers for crowd control . But the massive numbers overwhelmed them .

After the stampede , devotees -- some in blood-soaked shirts -- carried the limp bodies of victims on to police vehicles while emergency officials frantically tried to tend to the wounded .

Temple stampedes are not uncommon in India during religious festivals .

Last month , more than 130 people were killed when panicked worshippers tried to flee a crowded mountaintop Hindu temple in northern India .

That stampede , which occurred on the second day of a nine-day religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in Himachal Pradesh state , apparently was triggered by a false rumor of a landslide on the hill above the crowd .

And in January 2005 , more than 250 people were trampled to death during a pilgrimage in the western state of Maharashtra .

CNN 's Harmeet Singh contributed to this report .

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At least 147 people killed , 55 injured in India temple stampede

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Official : Stampede took place on temple pathway in Rajasthan state

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Not immediately clear what had sparked the stampede

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Incident follows another stampede that occurred in August , killing 130 people